This article has been revised from the original version.

Downtown-based Mote Inc., which develops biomass plants to generate hydrogen fuel and sequester the carbon dioxide byproduct, is planning a second biomass plant – this one in the Sacramento area.

The plant, which is projected to cost up to $1 billion to build, is being developed in partnership with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. 

The two parties are scouting for a suitable site in the Sacramento area for the plant, which would burn wood chips to produce hydrogen that could be sold as fuel and carbon dioxide that could be stored underground. 

So far, about $1.7 million has been raised for initial plant design and environmental work – $1.2 million in grants from the United States Forest Service, the California Department of Conservation, and the California Department of Forestry, along with $500,000 from Mote.

Construction could begin in 2026 and finish in late 2027.

Mote already has a similar project in planning stages in Kern County. In December 2021, the company announced plans to build a $100 million gasification plant on 5 acres of land. 

Mote has teamed up with Irving, Texas-based engineering and construction firm Fluor Corp. and SunGas Renewables, a subsidiary of Des Plaines, Illinois-based GTI International Inc. that makes gasification systems. 

A Mote spokeswoman said that the two plants combined would produce about 42,000 metric tons per year of hydrogen. The Sacramento plant would generate about 450,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide.

Mote finds buyers for both the hydrogen and the sequestered carbon.